Digital BW, The Print

Hello Max,

>I have only used two papers so far: EEM and PR
>For the difference in price, I think the EEM is a
>great product.  The Photo Rag feels fantastic in my
>hands, but I see only very slight difference in image
>quality.

>What paper(s) are you using for your B&W printing, and
>what's your favorite (and why)?

I use EEM for proofing because it's cheaper, but it's not archival.  
For final prints I use one of the good cotton papers.  PR has been the
main one, but I have recently expanded the list to include some others
because of the different tone colors they give with Eboni ink.  

I do Black Only printing with Eboni and with these papers I now
have 4 gradations from warm to neutral.  Here they are, all have
excellent contrast and Dmax and make really beautiful prints:

Epson Velvet fine Art - warmest
H. Photo Rag - moderately warm
Hawk Mtn. Merlin Smooth - slightly warm
Hawk Mtn. Condor BW - neutral

Paul Roark has mentioned another new paper to be released soon which I
am eager to try, Permajet Alpha Natural White.  He says it has Dmax
like PR.

I also tried the Premier Art Hot Press but ruled it out because it
requires a contrast curve to make the image match what I get with EEM
and PR.  The papers in my list all have similar contrast and print the
image without requiring an adjustment curve.  With these papers I can
work up the image on EEM and then choose the final paper for whatever
tone I want and not have to worry about applying a special curve.  I
don't know if this will apply with your ink set, so you'll have to do
some experimenting.  

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm